LuminousBoutique

Try cooling the candle more slowly. Put it in a box or put something over it. Same principal as cooling telescope lenses, the slower the less likely it will crack.

ditto advice. pour at cooler temps, and cool as slowly as possible.

Two is OK as long as you have a better set up, superior product (or know how to sell it better) and never trash talk the other!

If anything, get a good idea what they make, and try and make some other products. For example, my booth doesnt compete with the other booths, we all do something a bit different.

One woman sells 7 different kinds of soap and two body butters, but she also sells a ton of other mishmash in her booth and honestly it looks messy. She doesnt sell much. technically shes a soap maker, but shes not taken seriously.

Another is an ace soap maker, but he has a limited offering. They make goats milk soap with fresh goats milk from their farm- really cool! I generally DONT make goats milk soap, so I can send people their way looking for that.. they send people my way looking for scents they dont and wont carry.

Last, there is a company that does "scent your own" type products. They use all bases, so customers know what they are getting with me.. handmade, truly handmade from scratch products.

There are 4-5 of us in a market of 80, and its not too much... although I wish there were less.

My mother in law and friend both RAVE about it in beauty products too, I made a soap with it, they both then wanted lotions and perfume too!

it is really messy to move them, so i leave them in bags. I tried moving the pigments over to little clear plastic containers like these http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DPINS6/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000RB3XOM&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JXXPV1NNKHSNB8QWBTN (they were a bit bigger, and held roughly the whole ounce) but opening the jar is messy! There was alot of (*#$(#*$#& <--- coming out of my mouth. In the end I just moved everything back into bags and called it good lol

what kind of cream base? Like body butter?

wouldnt be shocked if it were a competitor. I had to fight etsy to have some negatives removed from mine because a competitor bought a few of my items just to leave negatives with no explaination, TWO DAYS before delivery confirmation even showed them delivered. Luckily she was stupid enough to use an easily trackable email, and I was able to prove she was a competitor and was also shilling on her own etsy. (buying her own items using another account and leaving herself instant glowing feedback, she'd done it over 500 times!!!!) her account was deleted, and mine was fixed!

I'd look into it a bit more if i were you, but honestly it is true that some people are just impossible to please.

One of my best customers complained her body butter wasnt scented enough when it was scented with the max amount of FO.. couldnt safely put anymore in there.. so what can you do. Sometimes you just have to accept you cant make them 100% happy. She continues to buy!

it looks like tie dye! cool!

more info... http://riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com/2011/06/16613/candle-gel-that-caused-riverhead-boys-accident-recalled-after-times-article/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/nyregion/a-firepot-a-safe-label-and-2-horrible-explosions.html?_r=1

and http://www.napahomeandgarden.com/safety/ (hhhhrm..)

WOW. That is terrible scary!!

looks fab kitn!!

stunning! I love the ones that are on the bottom and almost look like butterfly wings

Shopping Cart Subtotal: $80.50

Shipping: $26.34

Grand Total: $106.84

for me at least. not terrible...

soapers choice really does seem the way to go. With shipping its not cheap but its cheapest.

I'd divy it up among all my drains

I think it would make a nice line, I can see it doing well in body butter, scrub, lotion.. its really crisp. Its on my list too, that and Tall Grass have been real customer favorites so far this year!

Coconut at MMS I'll look at AAA!

its so so good, one of my absolute new favorites!

Beautiful rae!!

yeah its not going to change anything, people will still cheat the system and post non handmade items as handmade.. non vintage as vintage...

yeah, columbus foods i hate paying the shipping but they really have the best prices for almsot all of my oils

Watermelon, Apple Pie - best sellers for me

You mean just the key lime? I love it, doesnt discolor at all, great lime scent! no bakery to it at all though... its just straight key lime http://www.peakcandle.com/products/Key-Lime-Fragrance-Oil__F1076.aspx

I use the same recipe for everything, except for my castile (100% oo) and my shampoo bar recipe.. I dont make that alot though. I used to have different recipes and honestly it was just more work than it was worth to have different ones, so I stick to the same for everything now, to make it shaving soap just add clay, so on and so forth.

I use lots of olive, coconut, shea, some cocoa, and castor.. i cut out canola, soybean, never used palm or lard.. the coconut is hurting I used to get it at MMS, because i wouldnt have to pay shipping... and I'd do 50 lbs. 122.50 right now!!!!! SoapersChoice, 80.50.. shipping $26.34 for just the coconut oil... so I suppose I'll be waiting a bit to order, until I need more supplies.

wick duds are the worst, i got a 1000 pack of cotton core tealight wicks once that were just pathetic, wouldnt burn. would. not. burn. I thought, well crap maybe my notes were wrong and I need to wick up.. so I used a different wax I had on hand that takes smaller wicking.. well no. Well maybe its the fragrance? No. They were just bad wicks, they would initially light and then within seconds the flame would go out, every single time. I went through 200 of them testing. If I hadnt tested, 100 of those tealights would have gone out to my customer, and all of them eventually. I recieved 100 from the same supplier for re-testing at their urging, and they were fine, burned like a dream. On closer inspection, the bad wicks looked thinner and flimsier, and were coated in a slightly different colored wax. It was a huge eye opener for me.